Learn More About Nyla Fujii-BabbNyla (Ching) Fujii-Babb, of Asian and Native Hawaiian ancestry, traces her ancestry to her full-blooded Native Hawaiian great-great-grandparents Keawekawaa-o-kauhale-o-kekaulike and Leihina Namaka-o-ka-hai, and to her great-grandmother Rose Kawaa Kalahau Keawe Ching, her Chinese great-grandfather Lo Tai Ching, to her immigrant Korean grandfather, Sung Noh Lee and to her immigrant Japanese maternal grandparents Sosuke Harada and Saiko Toyama.
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Nyla retired from the Hawaii State Public Library System with over 30 years of service as a Children’s Librarian, Young Adult Librarian, Bookmobile Librarian, Branch Manager, Administrator in Materials Selection and Program Development. She has been Adjunct Faculty for the University of Hawaii at Manoa’s Graduate School of Library and Information Science Program for over 25 years. Nyla has served as researcher and cultural advisor for a number of projects, including the 2009 publication of “Pig-Boy; A Trickster Tale from Hawaii” by the late Caldecott Award winning author, Gerald McDermott. She is also on the Artist Roster of the Statewide Cultural Extension Program of the University of Hawaii’s Outreach College.
Nyla has been a professional storyteller, actress, voice-over talent, teacher, and producer for over 50 years in Hawaii. Noted for her collaborative work with other artists, she has combined storytelling with dance, theatre, music, and the visual arts. She has appeared on most of the major stages in Hawaii including Kumu Kahua Theatre Company, and the Honolulu Theatre for Youth, as well as the Japan-America Theatre in Los Angeles, and the Emerson Majestic Theatre in Boston. Till she retired from “Mai Poina”, she performed as Queen Liliuokalani at Iolani Palace. Among her television and film credits, she was the main voice-over narrator for the Hawaii Public Television PBS specials: Tom Coffman’s “Nation Within: The Overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom,” the Biography Hawaii Series: “Koji Ariyoshi,” and Tom Coffman’s “The First Battle: The Battle for Equality in War Time Hawaii.”
She has been an invited featured teller at several mainland storytelling festivals including the Illinois Storytelling Festival, the San Juan Capistrano “Once Upon a Story Festival”, the Bay Area Storytelling Festival, the Oregon Multi-Cultural Storytelling Festival, The Ojai Storytelling Festival in Ventura, California and the St. Louis Storytelling Festival at the Arch. She is the only storyteller from Hawaii to be both an “Exchange Place Teller” and an invited “Featured Performer” at the prestigious National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee.
Nyla has been a professional storyteller, actress, voice-over talent, teacher, and producer for over 50 years in Hawaii. Noted for her collaborative work with other artists, she has combined storytelling with dance, theatre, music, and the visual arts. She has appeared on most of the major stages in Hawaii including Kumu Kahua Theatre Company, and the Honolulu Theatre for Youth, as well as the Japan-America Theatre in Los Angeles, and the Emerson Majestic Theatre in Boston. Till she retired from “Mai Poina”, she performed as Queen Liliuokalani at Iolani Palace. Among her television and film credits, she was the main voice-over narrator for the Hawaii Public Television PBS specials: Tom Coffman’s “Nation Within: The Overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom,” the Biography Hawaii Series: “Koji Ariyoshi,” and Tom Coffman’s “The First Battle: The Battle for Equality in War Time Hawaii.”
She has been an invited featured teller at several mainland storytelling festivals including the Illinois Storytelling Festival, the San Juan Capistrano “Once Upon a Story Festival”, the Bay Area Storytelling Festival, the Oregon Multi-Cultural Storytelling Festival, The Ojai Storytelling Festival in Ventura, California and the St. Louis Storytelling Festival at the Arch. She is the only storyteller from Hawaii to be both an “Exchange Place Teller” and an invited “Featured Performer” at the prestigious National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee.
